Taken from an article titled "A new day for U.S. atheists?" written by Michael Conlon, Religion Writer and located here: http://uk.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUKTRE52T47G20090330

For some atheists in the United States it's a bright new day with the election of President Barack Obama and a move away from religion-shaped government policies of past years.

Since then Obama reversed restrictions on stem cell embryonic research and the White House has signaled more liberal attitudes toward gays. Obama is a member of the United Church of Christ but has said he was raised in a family where values counted for more than religious identity.

[Is this really a sign of more enlightened attitudes towards the athiest/agnostic society in America?]

Kenneth Bronstein, president of the New York group, said there has been a dramatic shift in attitudes about atheism which he attributes to former President George Bush whose policies he said fed an appetite for change.

A recent report from Connecticut's Trinity College found 12 percent of Americans were atheists, agnostics or doubters. It put the number of self-professed atheists at 2.3 percent, another 4.3 percent said there is no way to know if God exists. About 6 percent said they were not sure about a deity.
[12% amounts to 36,458,956.8 Americans. That is not an insignificant number. According to U.S. Religious Landscape Survey (http://religions.pewforum.org/) 21.4% of the country does not self-identify as Christian.]

"There are very few atheists in America, and they are, in general, not admired," [Robert Altemeyer of the University of Manitoba, who has studied U.S. nonbelievers, says]. "The shifting that is occurring, which both helped Obama win and which will be reinforced by the perception that stem cell research should go ahead, etc., is a movement away from institutionalized Christianity to less participatory and 'in name only' Christianity," he said.

[Assuming Altemeyer is correct is that a a good thing for non-believers and/or non-christians?]

I'm an
Old
Chubby
Harley ridin
Jew
!

President Obama seems to be much more of a REAL christian person (to me)than President Bush. I don't see "religion being taken out of government". I just see a more intelligent and intellectual president. And I am more comfortable with the government making decisions based upon rationality than any sort of psuedo political/religious ideology.

I just got mental image of the stereotypical biker wearing a yarmulke and talking like Woody Allen. No offence meant. I guess that would put you into the 21.4%.

And I am not really seeing the connection to President Obama and atheism. He was a regularly attending member of a church for more years than the last several republican presidents. He also seem to actually practice christian principals in his personal life instead of just talking about them like a lot of other people do.

The article suggests that because he has so far taken a more relaxed stance towards conservative topics that it means he will be more sympathetic to non believers. I still have my doubts, though. I was just curious if anyone intercepts as much optimism as some of those quoted in the article do?

I pray God keeps a good eye out for this country and finds His way to bestow us blessings and a brighter future. Don't care for religion in politics, but I sure do care for God being involved.

So "nonbelievers" are second class citizens?

I think President Obama realizes that its not his job nor concern about whether or not he should "favor" a person or group that professes to be believers or non-believers. Its not the President job. A President of the United States has a lot more important things to be worried about. Like running the country.

True and I'm not suggesting he should favor non-believers over believers, just that historically presidents and politics has been overwhelmingly biased towards believes, specifically christians.

I think the only reason there has been a recent historical bias towards conservative Christians and their political agenda in this country is because that has traditionally been the rationale that has afforded them their candidacy and place in office. McCain had them from the word go. They voted for senator McCain because he wasnt Obama in fact. Its not that Barack Obama is "pro-Atheist". He is simply a highly educated man and comparably liberal when you place him next to our past Republican leaders. So yes, we will see the conservative right and their political leanings come to a stand still and some of the more liberal policies steam ahead for the next 8 years. Hopefully 8 unless Obama screws something up foul and I doubt that will occur.

I think out of all the recent presidents we have bar Clinton, Obama is more objective with his religious beliefs than others.

I would prefer absolutely no religion in government at all. No bibles, no karans, nothing. Because only then can I say that our government is completely respectful to all religions.

There cannot be religion in the government because whichever religion the government is acknowledging is then the "accepted" religion for all. Meaning all others are "not accepted".

I bet an interesting study would be to see if you could look back over the history of this country (US) and find the period of time where Christianity began to really get a foothold into American politics. I would state that this nation was founded on the concepts of Deism and as smiless mentioned, at least our first three presidents were Freemasons and Deists.

So when did the change occur? It must have happened within the voting citizenry at some point. It was decided that if you aren't a Christian, you wont be getting my vote so that caused a shift in how candidates for the presidency would present themselves to the public because they knew they needed that seat regardless of how they felt about the matter of religion personally.

I know that President Kennedy was almost not elected due to the fact that he was a Catholic and that threw the Christian population into an absolute panic.

The type of Christianity that Americans believed in changed during the 1820-1840s. It was called "The Great Awakening".

I have wondered that myself. I think I will do some research into this. I'll post my results when I have finished.

Mirror's Great Awakening is a big part of it yet I disagree with some of what I read about that. They were trying to claim that the "First Awakening" was responsible for the revolutionary war. Doubtful. Christianity and its morality would have been in direct conflict with what the men who initiated that process (high treason) believed was important at the time.

Unfortunately from what I learned over the years, it appears a big part of it was money.

Obama is against gay marriage.He has said this many times.

I pray Goddess Leila Sharmootah keeps a good eye out for this country and finds Her way to bestow upon us whip slashings and a brighter future with red sore arses. Don't care for religion in politics, but I sure do care for Goddess of bondage and discipline being involved in our sex lives.